Monday, March 18, 2013

The white party

By Mustang BobbyOne last note about the CPAC gathering this past weekend: there was a session that was labeled — I’m not making this up — “Trump The Race Card: Are You Sick And Tired Of Being Called A Racist When You Know You’re Not One?” (Answer: if people call you a racist, you probably are.)It got a little out of hand when a couple of white guys got their tails all puffed up about conservative African-Americans calling themselves “Frederick Douglass Republicans,” condemning slavery, and blaming it on the Democrats.

Scott Terry of North Carolina, accompanied by a Confederate-flag-clad attendee, Matthew Heimbach, rose to say he took offense to the event’s take on slavery. (Heimbach founded the White Students Union at Towson University and is described as a “white nationalist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.)“It seems to be that you’re reaching out to voters at the expense of young white Southern males,” Terry said, adding he “came to love my people and culture” who were “being systematically disenfranchised.”Smith responded that Douglass forgave his slavemaster.“For giving him shelter? And food?” Terry said.

At this point the event devolved into a mess of shouting. Organizers calmed things down by asking everyone to “take the debate outside after the presentation.”

I’m shocked, shocked to see racism going on at a Tea Party panel on racism.(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)